Student Characteristics And Choice Of High School Remembrance Role

Adolescence, Summer, 1999 by Alyce Holland, Thomas Andre

To assess total high school social activity participation, students reported their highest level of participation in each of 11 types of nonsport extracurricular activities: band/orchestra, cheerleader/pep club, chorus/vocal music, dance/drama, hobby/interest clubs, honorary clubs/honor society, newspaper/yearbook, student council/government, speech/debate, subject-matter clubs, and vocational-education clubs. Response categories were: did not participate (1), occasionally participated (2), regularly participated (3), and participated as leader/officer (4). The degree of involvement in social activities was computed by summing student responses across all 11 categories.

Students also indicated, using the same four response categories, their highest level of participation in each of 12 sports while in high school: baseball or softball, basketball, football, gymnastics, golf, hockey, soccer, swimming, tennis, track, volleyball, and wrestling. Total participation was computed by summing student responses across all sports.

Satisfaction with school was measured using a 10-item scale constructed for the present study. Students indicated their satisfaction with various aspects of the high school experience, such as academics, extracurricular activities, social life, recreational facilities, counseling services, and school personnel, including teachers and administrators.

DATA ANALYSES AND RESULTS

First, the percentage of students who choose each remembrance role was calculated. Similar to previous studies, when asked how they preferred to be remembered after high school, males selected the role of star athlete most frequently (42.3%), followed by most popular (20.8%), brilliant student (19.6%), and leader in activities (17.3%). Females, however, preferred the role of brilliant student (31.6%), followed by leader in activities (27.0%), most popular (22.1%), and athletic star (19.3%).

Discriminant Analysis

A direct-entry descriptive discriminant analysis was conducted to investigate which discriminating variables were associated with the four remembrance roles. In accord with Huberty's (1994) recommendations, the initial 18 discriminating variables were statistically screened to eliminate those that would not contribute to separation of the remembrance role groups. Following Huberty's procedure, multiple univariate analyses of variance were conducted with each of the 18 as a dependent variable and remembrance role as the independent variable. Consequently, student employment during the school year, mother's occupation, father's occupation, mother's marital status, and father's education were dropped prior to conducting the discriminant analysis because they produced a univariate F value of less than 1.0.

Males and females differentially select remembrance roles, and it may be that the variables that describe those choosing a particular remembrance role also differ by gender. To assess this possibility, a preliminary hierarchical discriminant analysis was conducted in which computed variables representing the interaction with gender and the discriminating variables were included after the main effects of the discriminating variables and gender were entered. Including these interactions did not contribute to separation of the remembrance role groups. In addition, gender (2) by remembrance group (4) analyses of variance (ANOVAs) were conducted on the three discriminant function scores and on the individual discriminating variables. No interaction of gender and remembrance group was significant. Because of this failure to find any evidence of interactions with gender on the discriminating variables, and because the interactions with gender and the discriminating variables did not contribute to group separation in the discriminant analysis, the results reported here are for a single discriminant analysis on the combined male and female data. (Gender, however, was included as a discriminating variable.) The breakdown by remembrance role for the combined male and female sample of 412 students was as follows: athletic star was selected by 118 (28.6%), brilliant student by 110 (26.7%), leader in activities by 95 (23.1%), and most popular by 89 (21.6%).